iDon't Blame You For Being You
by breakingafterall
Summary: Sam is trying to do well in school, half to impress Freddie, and half to win her Fat Cakes. Seddie. Little itty bitty Cibby. :D T for language.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One.

It all started with a book. That one book, that Freddie forced me to read. I was hooked on reading, but only when no one was looking. Even though I never read what I was supposed to, like textbooks or book report books, I read. A lot.

Freddie read. Carly didn't, atleast not as much as us.

The only person that knew how addicted I was, was my dear little friend Gibby. We sat on his porch one day a week, sort of like a mini book club, talking about books. I wasn't sure why or how he read, considering how many people were convinced he was mentally challenged. I still believed he was a mermaid, so maybe he read while he was in the bathtub cleaning his tail.

We became better friends pretty fast once we started doing this, and it was good to finally have someone to talk to that wasn't Carly. I'd started to get jealous of her, because after all these years, Freddie was still hooked. And so, I opened up to him.

"Maybe Freddie would like you more if you were smart like him," he suggested, shielding his face after in case I punched. I didn't, because I knew that was true. I was getting a D in every one of my classes, and I didn't try at all.

"I am smart. I just don't do homework. Or tests. Or quizzes."

"Or anything." Gibby laughed. I couldn't help but laugh too, as I stood up and put my book into my bag. "You're gonna need to go to college, anyway, Sam."

"College? My mom doesn't have the money for that," I shrugged, "but I guess it wouldn't hurt to learn something now and then."

"Do you think you could get all your grades up to an A?"

"I _know_ I can." I gave him a thumbs up, "Is that a challenge?"

"...Yes." He crossed his arms, "The prize is... A years supply of Fat Cakes, and Freddie Benson's heart."

Sometimes Gibby said some cute things. "You're on, Gibson."

That night I went home. I curled up in my bed, and texted Carly asking what homework and tests we had tomorrow. She told me, and I spent the entire night trying to find X. But when I walked into class the next day and that test was on my desk ready to be filled out, I passed out.

"Sam," Carly nudged my shoulder, "Sam, wake up."

"Huh?" I looked up at her, "Oh my god, the test!" I sat up and looked around.

"The bell just rang. The period is over. You slept through it. Again." She helped me stand up, "Why are you so tired?"

"You mean I _failed_?" I covered my face with my hands, "I can't believe I just did that."

"Sam, you fail everything." Carly laughed, "It's no biggie."

"No biggie? It's an F!" I grabbed my bag angrily and started walking out of the room, "I spent all night playing pirate just to fail? No way."

"Playing pirate?" Carly followed me as I sped through the hallway to the cafeteria.

"Yep," I quickly bought a cookie and sat down at a table to eat it. "I just want my Fat Cakes, Carls."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Sam." She sighed, then laughed, "You've been hanging around Gibby too much lately."

"Nah," I shrugged, "Hey, are you and Spencer gonna be home tonight?"

"No actually. He's taking me to an art exhibit in another town."

That was all I needed to hear, so I told her I had to go, and then left. I headed to Principal Franklin's office and picked the lock. No one was inside, so I pulled a chair into the corner, sat down, and slept more. By the time he finally woke me up, it was time to leave school.

"Someone told me you wanted to see me," I lied, "so I came in here and must have fell asleep waiting."

"Who told you I wanted to see you?" He asked.

"Briggs." I shrugged. I got out of there as soon as possible so I could get home, study, do homework, and then sleep, all at Carly's place. Mom had told me she was having a man over for dinner, and I was not about to be a part of that.

But of course, I ran into Freddie.

"Hey, Sam!" He called, and I stopped, because how could I ever pass up a conversation with him? "Where are you headed?"

"Carly's, why?"

"Lemme walk with you there, I've gotta hook something up to the tv in the studio."

I loved when he walked with me places, I loved talking to him, and I loved whenever he was around me. We'd gotten so much closer, and it absolutely sucked. He'd tell me little things about Carly, like how nice her hair looked, or how he liked her top. But all he ever said to me was, "wow, you've gotten even stronger since the last time you hit me!"

"Okay," I smiled at him, and then I stood next to him as he took books out of his locker. When he was done, we left school, and it was obvious I was quieter than usual. I was trying really hard to remember what we learned in History, but it wasn't coming to me. This was going to be harder than I thought.

"Are you alright?" He asked, looking over at me as we crossed a street.

"I'm great." I laughed, "Fabulous."

"No you're not," he raised his eyebrows, chuckling, "Well, I mean, of course you're great and fabulous, but I know you don't _feel_ great and fabulous."

That was weird. Awkward. Insane. It made me get nervous, which I never got. "How do you know how I feel?"

"I know you, Sam. You usually tell me about your day when we walk places," the light turned green while we were in the middle of the street, so he grabbed my arm and pulled me quickly to the sidewalk.

"Well why don't you tell me about your day first?" I asked.

"Nothing really happened, I had a test in almost all my classes." He shrugged.

"Don't we have all the same teachers?" I smacked my forehead, "I had a ton of tests, and spent the whole day sleeping in Franklin's office."

"You're gonna have to stay back if you keep pulling crap like that." He laughed, but I could tell he was disappointed in me.

"It was an accident." I sighed.

When we got to Carly's, I crashed on the couch and pulled out my books. I asked Freddie what all the homework was, but he got fed up with me asking him to repeat it over and over as I wrote it down and just threw his assignment pad at me. He went upstairs to hook up whatever he was doing, and I stared at my history book.

It was kind of like reading regular books. It told a story. It was a boring story, but a story nonetheless.

"You're still reading?" Freddie asked, walking downstairs and sitting next to me after about an hour, "I'm proud of you, Samantha Puckett."

"Better be. Things are gonna change from now on." I smiled at him confidently.

We hadn't been fighting as much lately, and I liked it. He didn't push my buttons, and ignored me when I pushed his. And I thought things were going well, up until what came next.

"Carly's doing really well with her grades this year," he started, "she's getting recommended for AP courses next year."

"Oh yeah?" I pretended to care. "What about you? You're not in any AP courses."

"Yeah. My mom's afraid that if she puts me in them, I'll be too pressured and commit suicide."

"That's nice." I shrugged, flipping the page to continue reading.

"...not really." He laughed, "want me to help you study?"

I did, I really did. "Sure."

"I helped Carly study for that math test today. We sat in the hallway pretty late last night." He went to get some paper out of his bag, but that put the icing on the cake.

"I studied last night by myself. And I would have passed the test today if I didn't fall asleep."

"Well now you have me to study with," he smiled at me, but I didn't smile back.

"No, it's okay, you can keep helping Carly." I gathered my things up quickly and pulled out my cellphone. I started dialing Gibby's number, and left the apartment without another word to Freddie. I couldn't go home, I couldn't go back to Carly's, so I was heading in the direction of Gibby's.

"Sammo!" Gibby shouted when he answered.

"Gib, can I come over and just have somewhere quiet to study for a while?"

"Sure thing. I can even help you study. Finally repay you for training me to fight Freddie that one time."

When I got to his house, we went in his room and I vented about everything that had just happened with Freddie. It was nothing big. But it bothered me so much. And then Gibby held up a flashcard with a vocabulary word's definition on it, and I knew what word it was. "English test? You're going down."

I slept over Gibby's, playing with Gup in the morning. His mom didn't even question it, and took us to school. I took makeup tests in all the classes I'd be in Franklin's office for, and I was confident about it.

"So I heard you slept over Gibby's last night," Carly mumbled as we sat down in the Groovy Smoothie after school.

"Yeah," I sipped my smoothie.

"Are you like, dating him or something?" Freddie asked.

"You sleep over Carly's, are you dating her?" I snapped.

"But Freddie _likes_ me. So that means you like Gibby." Carly nudged me, trying to act cute.

"That's not even true, Sam." Freddie rolled his eyes, "but you didn't even tell us that you were so close with Gibby."

"What do you mean that's not true?" Carly laughed.

"Why do I need to tell you guys who I'm close with?" I asked.

"Because yesterday, you completely blew me off for Gibby, that's why! You couldn't tell me what was bothering you, but you can go sleep over another guy's house?" Freddie looked mad, and I didn't know why, but it made me feel special, and I liked it. He even said he didn't like Carly. Sort of.

"What does that even matter to you?" I slammed my smoothie down on the table. "All you ever talk about is HER!" I pointed at Carly, scaring her, and she jumped back in her seat.

Freddie stood up and walked out. Carly stared at me.

"..Sam?" Carly whispered after a while.

"What!" I glared at her.

"Nothing." she stood up, too, and left. I sat at the table alone, pulled out a book, and read.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two.

"He's jealous of _me_?" Gibby smirked, "No one's ever been jealous of me!"

"Happy birthday!" Guppy shouted, playing peekaboo with Gibby's bed covers.

"It's no one's birthday today, buddy." I messed up his hair, and then looked back at my book. A Seperate Peace. A great novel, by John Knowles. "You know, Gib, this book is really good so far."

"Sam, you were supposed to read that in english class two years ago." He was sitting on the floor, eating some grapes that his mom brought up to us earlier. "But what if Freddie knocks me out of a tree like the main character did to his best friend because he was jealous? Oh, Sam, what did you get me into!"

"So that's all I have to do to get rid of Carly..." I rubbed my hands together evilly.

"That's not very nice," Guppy shoved my leg, "I love Carly!"

"Yeah, but Sam loves Freddie. And sometimes murder is necessary-"

"Gibby!" I shouted, "I wasn't serious."

"Oh."

"Gibby, Guppy, your dad is coming to pick you up in about 20 minutes!" his mom called to us, "I'm sorry Sam but you can't stay over tonight!"

"It's alright," I gathered my things together, "I think I'm gonna hit the library, anyway."

"That's something I never thought Sam Puckett would say." Gibby helped me get my things in my bag, and then walked me to the door. I waved to Guppy as I left.

I walked to the library, the entire time, thinking about what I was doing. I'd found a friend in Gibby, but I didn't really want to lose Carly - I missed her, and I wanted to tell her how I felt, but she wouldn't understand. I was never emotional, and this was an entire side of me that even I hadn't seen. I walked up to a computer and threw my books onto the floor, shuffling through pages of a notebook for my math homework.

I heard a familiar voice cursing at the computer next to me, so I peeked over. It was Spencer, with a headset on, clicking and mashing the keyboard violently.

"What'cha doin there, hotstuff?" I poked at his shoulder, and he screamed in suprise, glaring at me as if I was a ghost. "Calm down!"

"Sam!" he shouted, pausing his game, "What are you doing here!"

"Homework..." I looked down at my textbooks, "Yourself?"

"Just... playing some games..." He looked from the screen to me, "since when do you do homework?"

"Gibby and I made a bet."

"Ah, Carly told me how you and him have gotten closer," he shrugged, "what's goin' on there?"

"I just can't stand hanging around Freddie anymore." I laughed.

"I actually thought you and him have been getting closer! Why the change of heart so suddenly?"

"All he talks about is Carly, man." I stretched, "Don't tell Carly that, of course."

"When he's around us, all he talks about is you." Spencer sighed, "You and him have issues. Can't you just work these things out yourselves?"

"I didn't ask you to involved." I started to work on my math, which I was finally starting to understand. "Look, leave me alone now. Gotta get this done."

"Okay, okay. I'm gonna go defeat the evil wizard-"

"I don't care, Spence."

We didn't talk the rest of the night, but it was nice knowing that I wasn't sitting there alone. But then, at 11 at night, it struck me. Carly was home alone if Spencer was here- which gave Freddie complete access to get with her. That would have never bothered me before, but now was different. Everything was changing. I quickly got my things together - again - and left. Spencer didn't even notice, he was way too into his game.

I nearly ran all the way to the plaza, up the stairs because there was a line for the elevator, and collided with Freddie in the hallway. All my books flew out of my bag, and I landed on my ass.

"What the hell are you doing!" I shouted at him, "Shouldn't you be in bed by now?"

"I can ask you the same thing, Sam. Why are you here?" He helped me up.

"What were you doing with Carly?" I snapped, "You were with her, weren't you?"

"Well, Guppy told me you were over their house again." He held up his phone, "I was texting him."

"You pedophile, why are you texting little kids!" I stepped away from him, "You're disgusting."

"Look, Guppy texted me. He told me you were talking about me."

"Oh that kid's gonna get it." I picked up all my books and picked Carly's lock, then threw my things onto the couch. "Whatever he said isn't true."

"I know that. Trust me." He laughed. "So what do you do with Gibby all hours of the day?"

"Same thing you do with Carly." I crossed my arms. Atleast I hope all Freddie and Carly did was study and talk, but who was I to know?

"Yeah? Well, Carly's better at it than Gibby!" He said in that nervous tone he uses when he can't think of a good comeback for me. I knew he was lying, but it still made me feel awkward.

"But Carly doesn't have big strong arms like Gibby does." I walked over to the fridge to get some food.

"That's because I have the big strong arms!" Freddie waved his arm at my face, so I grabbed my chest and stuck my tongue out.

"Yeah, well Carly sure doesn't have _these_!"

We stared at each other a few seconds before he bursted out laughing, "You sure are right."

"I know I am." I laughed too. "So what exactly have you been doing with her?"

"Just studying." He shrugged, "You and Gib?"

"Studying." I giggled, eating the pizza I'd gotten from the fridge.

"Guys?" Carly said suddenly, and Freddie and I realized she'd been standing on the staircase, "you didn't know I was here?"

"Uh." I looked at her, "Did you hear all that?"

"Sam, I thought we were best friends? I don't make fun of you, saying that my stomach is smaller than yours. You don't need to make fun of my chest."

"Hey, hey, woah. What's wrong with my stomach?" I stomped towards her, "Atleast I have some curves."

"Sam!" Carly shouted, "That's because you spend all your time eating junk food instead of doing something productive with your life!"

"Guys, guys," Freddie walked between us, "There's no reason to be arguing right now."

"She went too far." I pushed Freddie out of the way, "For your information, I'm going to raise all my grades to A's."

"Like that'll ever happen." She walked upstairs. I looked at Freddie in awe.

"Can you believe her?" I laughed, "She's ridiculous."

"I'm not gonna be in the middle of this." Freddie left the apartment, and I slept on the couch. I left in the morning before Carly woke up, studying in the hallway before class started.

"How's it going?" Gibby asked, walking up to me.

"I got in a fight with Carls last night. Things aren't looking good, Gib." I shrugged, "But your brother? He needs his phone taken away."

"I'll talk to him about it."

One month. Fifteen tests. Seven quizzes. 140 homework assignments.

Carly and I had slowly started to talk again, letting everything pass. Carly, Freddie, Gibby, and I sat at the Groovy Smoothie, report card envelopes in our hands, ready to open.

Freddie went first, no one suprised at his straight A's. Carly had A's and B's, Gibby's were all over the place, and then it was down to me. I opened it slowly, then looked at it.

Mostly C's, which was better than my D's, but then it was there. In history. The letter B.

"Gibby!" I shouted, "I got a B in history!"

"Great job Sam!" He high fived me, and I couldn't help but get up from my seat to hug him. "I guess all those late nights in my room really worked!"

"Late nights in his room?" Freddie asked.

"I'm gonna take you out tonight, Sam, to celebrate your first B." Gibby smiled at me.

"Shouldn't Carly take her out, since Carly is her _best friend_?" Freddie said, and Carly glared at him.

"Maybe Freddie should, since her and Freddie have gotten so close they can make fun of me behind my back," Carly snapped.

"I sense a little bit of friction between you three." Gibby pointed out.

"Carls, it's been a month since that. Can't you let it go?"

"You could let go of a few pounds." She gave me the up-down, then stood up to leave.

"Carly-" Gibby followed her out.

"Let Gibby handle it. He has a way with words." I sipped my smoothie.

"You know, I'm really proud of you, even though I'm not the one helping you study." Freddie smirked at me, "Wanna go out tonight, just to change things up a little?"

"That sounds good, actually. Too much Gibby can exhaust a girl," I laughed.

"Too much Carly can definitely exhaust a boy. I don't know how she's had any boyfriends. All she does is complain and dramatize everything." He shook his head, "I'll be at your house around 7, sound good?"

"Sounds great."

Freddie left, and I sat at the table alone again. This time, though, I wasn't angry or upset. I was happy. I got a B, got asked on a date by Freddie, and Gibby was handling Carly.

Things were confusing, but it was okay. My life was changing for the better. One night out couldn't do anything wrong.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three!

I was absolutely exhausted when I got home. I collapsed in bed and decided a quick nap wouldn't be bad. I pulled the blankets around myself, and dreamt of Fat Cakes and bacon, floating through rainbows. I woke up, of course, to my mother screaming at me.

"Sam!" She shouted, "Your little friend Fred is here!"

I sat up quickly, realizing I'd lost track of time. It was 7, and I wasn't ready. My first date with Freddie, and I wasn't ready.

"Tell him I'm not ready!" I screamed, jumping out of bed and looking through my drawers for something attractive to wear. I threw on the first colorful piece of clothing I found, then ran for the bathroom to brush my teeth. Freddie caught a glimpse of me as he talked to my mom in the other room, and I saw him laugh. I gave him the finger, and slammed the bathroom door shut.

Toothpaste, mouthwash, and a little bit of mousse can do amazing things to a girl. I felt hot, and when I looked at myself in the mirror, I knew tonight could only get better.

"_Samantha Puckett, hurry up!_" My mother was growing impatient, and couldn't entertain guests if her life depended on it. I met up with Freddie by our front door, and then we left.

"Where's your car...?" I asked, as we got to the sidewalk. "Freddie, don't tell me we're walking all over town tonight-"

"Relax." He laughed, "The restaurant I'm bringing you to is right around the corner. It just opened."

I didn't respond, I just followed him. It was dark, but I could tell he looked good. Of course he had to push my buttons by wearing stripes - I hate stripes - but he still looked good.

"How's Carly doing?" I finally asked. He looked over at me.

"Gibby calmed her down a lot. They went back to her apartment and talked in the studio for a while. I was hanging out with Spencer, getting some advice." He shrugged. "She's gonna steal Gibby from you now."

"That's okay. I just want all of us to be friends again, you know?" I laughed. "I miss Carly, a lot more than I show."

"Why have you been distancing yourself from her, anyway? Is it really because I talk about her?"

"Promise you won't make fun of me?" I raised my fist, "I _will_ hurt you if you do."

"I promise." He chuckled, pushing my fist down.

"I'm just jealous of her, and I thought if I stopped talking to you guys as much, I'd get more comfortable with everything." I sighed, "But now I've realized how much you guys mean to me, and that being friends with you both is more important to me."

"Sam, why would you be jealous of Carly?" He stopped walking, and grabbed my arm.

I hated when he got serious like this. It was like he was so interested in my feelings, and I didn't want to open up to him like that. Especially to him. It had everything to do with him. And he didn't need to know anything. Maybe if he made a move tonight, then I could tell him how I felt. But he was using his serious tone, and I knew he wouldn't let me continue walking until I told him everything.

"It's just because I know you like her more than me." I looked away from him, "She's a lot prettier than me, and skinnier than me-"

"Pero eres hermosa!" Freddie shouted, grabbing my shoulders. I used my knowledge of Italian and some Spanish to figure out this meant "But you're beautiful!"

"Freddie..." I pushed his hands off me, "You still like her better."

I started to walk again, then looked back to see why he wasn't following me. He looked confused.

"But you're _both_ my best friends." He started to walk slowly, "I don't get why my opinion should matter."

"Your opinion doesn't matter." I laughed. _But your feelings do_.

"Oh." He caught up with me and we didn't talk again until we got to the restaurant. He covered my eyes until we got to the door, then uncovered them.

"Bacon?" I stared at the sign, "This restaurant is called Bacon?"

"Yup. There's one in Arizona somewhere, now they've opened one here. You hadn't mentioned it to anyone, so I knew you didn't know about it yet."

"I hope you brought a lot of money, because Mama's gonna eat good tonight!"

And I did. I ate a lot, and Freddie was amazed. There was barely any smalltalk during the main course, because my mouth was constantly full of food.

He didn't let me order dessert.

"I was going to take you out for one of T-Bo's new icecream smoothies, Sam." He shrugged, "But if you really want dessert from here, go ahead."

I closed the menu. "Wow, you really went all out tonight, didn't you?" I smiled, "Trying to impress me?"

"Well, you _are_ Princess Puckett. I've gotta step up my game for royalty."

Sometimes he took my breath away. That's why I was beginning to fall for him. He acted that way with a lot of girls though, because he was never very good at stealing hearts. I felt like I was the only girl he wasn't interested in, and somehow he stole mine.

"Well then," I motioned to our waiter to bring us the check, "keep trying."

"It's going to be hard to win you over, considering you've hated me since we met." He laughed, taking out his wallet, "But I'll keep trying. I know all your weak spots."

"Oh really?" I asked, as we started to leave, "You don't know so much about me."

"Think whatever you want to think, Sam." He opened the door for me, and then we started walking in the direction of the Groovy Smoothie. I was surprised when I saw T-Bo standing at the door, holding it open, ready for us.

The place was empty, and the table we usually sat at had a candle lit in the center. The lights were dim, and it reminded me of the night I caught Freddie and Carly dancing together.

That's when my mood got killed.

"Freddie-" I started.

"What can I get for you, your highness?" T-Bo asked, pulling out my seat for me.

"Hey, hey, that's my job." Freddie grabbed the seat from him. "Two of the icecream smoothies, please."

"You got it, Freddo." T-Bo disappeared into the back.

"Why did you do all this?" I laughed, "This is insane."

"I wanted it to be better than going out to Gibby's house every night." He shrugged, "Do you not like it?"

"You really treated it like a date tonight," I looked down at the table, "I didn't know you were going to take it seriously."

"What do you mean?"

"I thought that tonight being a date was all in my head."

"Me too." He chuckled nervously, "I thought you'd hate everything. But I really tried to make it all romantic."

"So it is a date?" I looked at him, "Like, a real date-date?"

"Well, if you want it to be." He broke eye contact, "It's up to you."

"Do you ever do things like this for Carly?" I asked quietly.

"...no." He raised an eyebrow, "Why?"

"Then tonight's a date." I smiled at him. "A real date-date."

"Your mind is crazy, Sam." He laughed.

"Here are your smoothies," T-Bo proudly put the smoothies in front of us, "I call it Chocolate Sundae Surprise!"

"What's the surprise?" I took a sip, then another, then felt my mouth burn up.

"Hot sauce!" He smiled at us.

"T-Bo!" I shouted, "Hot sauce and chocolate should never be combined."

"So you don't like it?" He looked sad, but I gave him a thumbs up.

"Tastes great," Freddie said reassuringly, and he eventually smiled and walked away.

"This is the worst smoothie yet," I spit it back into the cup, "I feel so bad lying to him."

"You feel bad lying?" Freddie swallowed hard, waving his hand at his tongue.

"Hey, I barely lie. Only to teachers and stuff." I waved my finger at him.

"Yeah yeah." He laughed.

We left late. It was nearly pitch black outside, and windy.

"Sam, the plaza is a lot closer, wanna just crash at my place tonight?" He had to shout over the loud wind, and I quickly found myself latched onto his arm because I was cold.

"Sure." I tried to block the wind from messing up my hair, but by the time we were inside, it was a disaster.

"I don't need you disgusting kids in my lobby!" Lewbert shouted, "Get out!"

We quickly ran up the stairs and to his apartment.

"I'll pick Carly's lock and sleep on the couch." I took a bobby pin out of my hair and stuck it into the keyhole.

"No, Sam, Carly's probably still pretty mad at you, why don't you just come sleep in my apartment?" He opened his door and motioned for me to go inside.

"Um, okay." I followed him in. He brought me to his room, gave me some pajamas and a blanket, and let me change in his bathroom. I stole one of his pillows and slept on his floor.

"Fredward Benson!" His mother shouted, "What is this _slime_ doing on our floor?"

"Huh?" We both woke up, staring at her confused. She was pointing at me.

"Did I say your dirty little friend could sleep over?" She put her hands on her hips, "I'm going to have to disinfect your clothes, blanket, pillow, and floor now! Why can't you think things through first, Freddie?"

"Mom, calm down."

"I'm clean, Mrs. Benson, trust me. I brushed my teeth yesterday." I stood up and stretched, "I'll leave now, too."

"No, Sam, stay for breakfast." Freddie got out of bed and ran after me.

"It's okay. My mom's probably worried about me anyway." I continued to leave, not wanting Mrs. Benson to smack me with Freddie's underwear like Carly.

"That's a lame excuse. We both know she's not worried about you."

It was a lame excuse. I just needed a little time to think about the night before, and what was going on. I also needed to do my homework and study for Monday's test. So I went home.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four.

As soon as I got outside, I called Gibby. He answered quickly and we talked on the phone my entire walk home, and he told me all about how Carly is a serious drama queen. She wanted to be friends with me, but didn't understand why I was "treating her like that". I decided this would be a good time to make up with her and tell her everything, considering Freddie and I had somewhat of a romantic experience.

I'd won him. Five points for Sam!

I spent that Saturday studying, with a face mask on, and some conditioner in my hair. Having curly hair was the biggest pain in the ass sometimes, because if it got the slightest bit dry, it was just frizz heaven. Anyway, there was a knock on my door, and since I never really gave a fuck about mailmen or delivery men seeing me looking monstrous, I opened the door with a bag of chips in my hand, and Cheetos being munched in my mouth.

It was Freddie.

"Sam- woah. Sam." He held back a laugh, and if that face mask wasn't on, he'd have seen the intense blush rise in my cheeks. "I wanted to spend more time with you, but you left so quickly, so I thought I'd come over to hang out, but... you don't really look like you're, um..."

"It's cool. Come in. Let me just shower up." I let him in, quickly got in the shower and washed everything so good, got out, and put on perfume. Yes, perfume. I actually owned some, although Carly was the one that bought it for me.

When I stepped out of the bathroom, I realized Freddie was in my room, sitting on my bed, looking through my notes. I was fine with that, but he seemed too comfortable with me suddenly, just because I'd taken interest in him and shown it.

I had to get back in control.

There were two ways I could do that. One, push him away and have him continue trying to win me over. Or two, let him know he'd already won me over, and control him sexually. Both were screaming "pick me!" but I knew that I wasn't ready to do anything sexual, especially with him, so I decided I'd push him away. Plus, I still had to focus on getting my grades to A's, and making up with Carly, and ugh.

"Someone's trying to impress me with some nice perfume," he smirked at me, so I rolled my eyes.

"In your dreams, Fredweirdo."

"...I thought we had something last night, Sam?" He tilted his head, and it made my knees go weak, but I ignored those feelings, took my notebook from him, and sat on the floor.

"Come on. You really thought you'd have a chance with me?" I laughed, "No way."

"So it was pointless that I came here, and pointless that I waited in your room while you showered?" He stood up, "That's perfect, Sam. You're a real piece of work." He started to leave, and I panicked.

Yes, I was trying to push him away, but he was supposed to keep trying, not give up. That's, atleast, what I _thought_ was supposed to happen. But it wasn't happening, and I fucked up. Bad.

"No, Freddie, wait!" I ran after him, but he was already out the door, slamming it in my face. I smacked my hand against my forehead, "Stupid, stupid, stupid Sam."

I was trying to focus on my stupid books, and my stupid notes, and stupid studying, but I kept thinking of Freddie, and how much I wanted him to come back and sweep me off my feet again. I picked up my phone and dialed Carly's number.

"What?" She said when she answered. Oooh, harsh.

"Hey, it's me, can we talk?" I sighed loudly, "I'm sorry for what's been going on between us. We've made it through fights in the past, we can make it through again. I'll tell you everything that's been going on if you just promise that we can be friends after this."

She was silent for a few seconds, but I knew this is what I needed. I needed my best friend back. Gibby wasn't the same as Carly. Carly had been there for me through so much, she was the egg to my bacon, and the grease to my fried chicken. Yeah, Gibby was a good listener, but when it came down to it, Carly was still that one person that I just needed.

We decided to meet at the studio.

I walked up the stairs nervously, trying to figure out what words I would use to tell Carly of my intense love and confusion with Freddie. When I opened the door, she was sitting in one beanbag, and I plopped into the other.

"Okay. Hi." I said awkwardly, looking over at her.

"I know I can be a lot to handle," she started, "but I really love you Sam."

"I love you too Carls. ...But I also love Freddie. In a different way than I love you." I gave her a thumbs up, trying to cover up the silence I'd just caused. "...I know that's, random, but, that's what's been up."

"_That's it?_" She started laughing, "Sam, I've known that forever. If you thought you were hiding it, you weren't."

"Then why would you, then, what, Carly!" I shouted, "How could you let me be so jealous of you and stuff? How could you?"

"Jealous of me?" She shook her head, "You're so stupid, Sam! That boy's madly in love with you, too. All he talks about is you."

"And you didn't tell me?" I stood up, "I'm just messing everything up, ain't I." I sighed. Loudly.

"What do you mean?"

"I thought it'd be a good idea to act like I didn't like him, and then he got mad, and now I think he hates me or something."

Before I knew it, Carly hugged me. It wasn't because she felt bad that I'd been messing things up, it was just because she missed me. I hugged her back, feeling the same way, and we stood there like that for a while.

"We have a problem, though." Carly said finally, backing away. "A big problem."

"What's that?" I asked.

"Gibby's fallen in love with you."

"_WHAT?_" My jaw dropped, and my eyes widened, "What?"

"That's what he told me, after he calmed me down, we kept talking, and then he started telling me about how he'd fallen in love with you, and he didn't want you to be with Freddie anymore but he felt bad because he knows how much you like him, and-"

I cut her off, because once she got started on one of her long, run-on sentence rampages, she never stopped. "Doesn't he have a friggin' girlfriend?"

"I don't know!" She groaned, "I shouldn't have told you."

"No, you should have. And I should go beat the snot out of that kid for even looking at me that way." I crossed my arms, "I started off wanting Freddie to like me, now he hates me and Gibby likes me. I hate life."

"Sam, calm down. Me and you are friends again, I'll help you figure this out."

It kind of bummed me out knowing that now I wouldn't be able to go to Gibby as comfortably as I had before. We wouldn't be able to have sleepovers without me feeling like he was gonna watch me sleep, and I wouldn't be able to tell him about Freddie without feeling bad. But now I had Carly again. I had this insane amount of guilt pour over me, because I was replacing Gibby with Carly. Then again, Gibby had replaced Carly in the first place, so it all evened out. Sort of.

My mind was a mess.

"I still need to keep studying for school though." I stomped my foot.

"All for some Fat Cakes from Gibby? You don't need to keep pushing yourself, I'll buy you the Fat Cakes. You've already won Freddie over. You don't need to keep trying to impress him with good grades."

"Don't you know me by now, Carly?" I sighed, "It's a pride thing. I bet that I could get all A's, now I've gotta. I know I can do it, I wanna prove it to myself. And if I can't study with Gibby, I'm gonna start failing. Especially now that I'm distracted with Freddie."

"This is such an annoying situation, Sam."

"Okay." I picked up a pad from Freddie's cart thingy, and a pen. "Make a list. Your handwriting is better."

She took the pad and pen from me and turned to a blank page, "Okay."

"Sam's Main Priorities," I began, "One, get good grades. Two, get with Freddie. No, reword that. Become Freddie's girlfriend. Okay. Three, get Gibby to fall out of love with me. Four, get my Fat Cakes."

"Okay. Are we going to do them in that order?"

"We?"

"Yes, I'm going to help you with everything now. No more drifting between us. We're best friends til the end, remember?" She smiled cheesily and I couldn't help but smile back.

"Yup."


	5. Chapter 5

Everything went back to normal, except now Carly and I were studying together, and I was actually getting good grades. Then the day came that I was supposed to meet Gibby on his porch to talk about the next chapter of the book we were reading. Honestly, I was nervous and uncomfortable. It took a lot to make me uncomfortable, and lately anything romantic was enough. I guess it made sense, considering I was never much of an emotional person on the surface.

When I got to his house, book in hand, he was sitting on the porch waiting. I sat next to him. We started with casual conversation, how have you been, nice weather we're having, the usual. Then we went into discussing the book, and how much of an asshole the main character was. But I couldn't take it much longer, I had to say something. I had to confront him.

"Gib, Carly told me you said something about falling in love with me." I finally blurted it out, awkwardly and loudly smack dab in the middle of our conversation.

"She said what?" He started to laugh. Not nervously, a real, genuine laugh. "Nice to know I can't trust her anymore. I lied about that."

"What? Why?"

"Well, you see, as she was going on an emotional rampage, I thought it would be good if I showed her my own emotional side. I couldn't tell her about how I've actually had a tiny crush on her for a while now, so I tried to think of some kind of a lie that would sound reasonably true. And wa-la, I fell in love with you."

Gibby was a twisted little man on the inside. Outside, he was an adorable, marshmallowey, odd, mermaidish little boy. But inside? He was a liar.

"So you have no feelings for me whatsoever?" I asked.

"Ew, no."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean, you little ball of lard?" I grabbed him by the collar of his ugly striped shirt and lifted him up.

"Ah, Sam, gentle, I'm just a Gibby!"

"I don't care what you are, no one calls me ew." His mom suddenly opened the front door with a tray of lemonade, the pink kind, and I quickly dropped Gibby.

"Oh, Gibby, why are you laying like that?" She put the lemonade down on a small table and helped him up.

"Nothing happened! He just fell, just like that. Right on his tush." I grabbed my book, and waved bye to them, even though I should have casually stolen the entire tray of lemonade. Those cups would have made a nice gift for Mrs. Benson next Christmas when I'd be needing to win over her approval as Freddie's lovely girlfriend.

I went to Carly's, running into Freddie in the hall. I'd laid off on picking on him, pushing him away, and trying to win him over all together. I wanted things to mellow out before I did anything again.

"Hey Sam." He said, putting his key in his door and then going inside. He closed the door behind him before I could even reply, so I ignored it all completely and knocked on Carly's door.

I told her about what Gibby said.

"A tiny crush? What's that supposed to mean?" She asked as I tried to figure out what 12 times 9 was.

"I dunno Carls. But I really gotta fix things with Freddio." I sighed. "I was so close. I swear."

"Want me to talk to him?" She shrugged, "I can still get him to do pretty much anything I want him to."

"But I want him to do it because he wants to." I let myself fall backwards on her bed. "Why does he have to go and make things so complicated?"

In seconds, Complicated by Avril Lavigne was blasting from Carly's stereo, and we were both singing loudly. Spencer knocked on her door, came in, and stared at us. I was singing to her hairbrush on her bed and she was whipping her hair back and forth by the couch.

"Freddie's here, want me to send him up?"

"Who?" I stopped mid lyric, dropped the brush, and almost lost balance. "TURN OFF THE MUSIC!"

Carly did as she was told, I ran to her mirror and fixed my hair, and before I knew it, Freddie was in the room with us. I was a nervous wreck yet again, and all I wanted was to tell him I loved him, so I could give him love-punches and bite his lip while we kissed.

"Did I interrupt something?" He sat on the couch and put his feet up.

"Psh, no!" Way to be slick, Carls.

I sat down at Carly's mirror and looked at all her makeup. She never looked like she was wearing all that much, but geez did the girl own a lot. Every flavor of lipgloss known to man, and every shade of eyeshadow that the rainbow could make. She never wore eyeshadow, though, so it really puzzled me why she owned it all.

As I was thinking all this, apparently Carly and Freddie had made plans to go watch a movie in the studio. I helped them gather the biggest blankets in the apartment, fluffiest pillows, and of course I was in charge of the popcorn because every time Carly made it, there was no butter. I was much better at making it yummy.

Carly was eyeing me as we threw the blankets and pillows over the floor, obviously because she wanted me to end up next to Freddie as much as I did. She started to fake cough, and I knew it was fake because of the lame wink she threw my way whe Freddie went to get her a glass of water.

When Freddie dimmed the lights and we were getting ready to lay down on the blankets, the TV came out, previews started playing, and Freddie went to lay so Carly was between me and him. Carly coughed loudly, then exclaimed, "Freddie you better not lay near me! You might get sick, then need to take medicine from your mom in your fruit sauce."

He reluctantly moved so that I was between them two. Carly nudged me lightly, then winked again. I couldn't help but laugh quietly.

The movie was disgustingly bloody and graphic, and Carly kept wincing and covering her eyes. Freddie was even looking away now and then. I, however, found the movie hilarious, and I could tell my constant outbursts of laughter were aggravating both of them. Carly eventually turned off the movie and put on cartoons, which all 3 of us couldn't stop watching if our lives depended on it.

"What's even amusing about a talking mop?" I asked, getting tired, but still glued to the TV.

"I don't know." Carly yawned loudly. I felt Freddie's head hit my shoulder, and when I looked over at him, his eyes were flickering shut. I smiled.

"Carly," Spencer said at the door, "phone call from father downstairs."

She instantly woke up and followed him down the steps. I managed to reach for my bag without disturbing Freddie and pulled out the book I was reading, lowered the volume of the TV. It was getting darker, but I could still see the words. I ate a handful of popcorn, flipping the pages quietly.

"Alicia dies," I heard Freddie's voice mumbled, "in a car accident."

"What?" I instinctively hid the book under the blankets, and looked over at him. "She, she can't die!"

"Chapter 11." He didn't move his head from my shoulder. "I didn't even know you read, Sam."

"Well it's your fault. Ever since you made me read that stupid book, I've been hooked." I finally told him what he'd done to me. Well, half. I wasn't ready to let him know he also turned me into a mushy, lovestruck, hopeless average teenaged girl.

"Don't say I've never done anything good for you, Puckett."

I felt my eyes getting heavy again, and I finally found myself cuddling against him. I was cold, and I remembered how well he handled me grabbing his arm in the wind, so he shouldn't mind a little cuddle action.

"I thought you said there was nothing between us." He cuddled back, although I think it was just his body's natural reaction (since his mom probably made him cuddle with her) and not because he wanted to be closer to me.

Every inch of my body was tingling. I wasn't getting turned on, obviously, but I didn't know what was happening. I just wanted to be there with him, against him, for a really long time.

"I lied."

"Just like you lied to T-Bo." He put his arm around me and I melted. Completely. "I'm sorry about how I acted that morning."

"I'm sorry I tried to push you away." My heart was racing. Saying sorry wasn't my favorite thing to do.

"Remember the second time we kissed?" His face was getting closer to mine. I'd always wanted him to make a move, but now that he was, I was nervous.

"That- That was Melanie, Freddie."

"Nope. It was you. You were pretending to be her." He was whispering now, and it was romantic, creepy, and sexy all at the same time. "I know your taste. The first time we kissed, you tasted like meatballs. You should really learn to chew a piece of gum before you try to trick someone into think you're someone else. Did you have meatballs right before you met me for that date, or do you always taste like that?"

I could be daring, and say 'kiss me now to find out' but I was scared. And shocked. I always knew he was smart, but he'd just figured everything out, and I was at a loss of words.

It was like he read my mind as he stared into my eyes, because he slowly leaned toward me and kissed me. It was gentle, and much better than the first two times. I wanted to get into it, wrap my arms around him, pull him on top of me, and fulfill every fantasy I'd ever had about the boy. But while there were a million things going through my mind, only one thing was on his.

"You do always taste like meatballs."

"Nah, Spencer made me and Carly spaghetti tacos with meat sauce before you got here." I laughed and looked away. My cheeks were burning up.

"Sam?"

"Yeah?" I kept looking the other way, because even though it was dark, I knew he'd find a way to see my blush.

"Can I kiss you again?"

It was like time was stopping, or something else magical. It's always times like these that I wish I was more girly so I could think of something romantic or cute or even sexy to say, but I breathed in uneasily and mumbled, "um, okay."

He laughed a little before gentle tilting my face toward his like they do in movies, and kissed me again. A few times, actually. They were short and sweet, one after the other. "You can kiss me back, you know."

"I'm sorry, I'm nervous." I never admitted to being nervous. And as I said before, I hated saying sorry. He managed to turn me into a babbling idiot just by kissing me. But I didn't like to disappoint. I knew I could kiss good if I tried, and I needed now to prove that to him.

I kissed him this time, just as gently, but I let my hands do what they wanted. My fingers were playing with his hair, and he quickly reacted to this. We were both laying on our sides, bodies pressed together, and his hand was on my waist, and before I knew it, I felt his tongue against mine.

I'd never done that before, but I always remembered Carly telling me it would come naturally. When my daughter comes to me for advice one day, I will bluntly tell her: that shit does not come naturally.

I was a mess, he was a mess, and we broke apart very quickly and both started laughing. That's when Carly came back in, and laid down next to me again. She was just in time. Freddie and I moved away from each other so it wasn't obvious something was going on, but as soon as he left that night, I grabbed Carly's shoulders and shouted, "We made out!"

Her eyes got wide and then she grabbed my shoulders back, "How was it?"

"Messy and disgusting." I let go, spun around in a circle, and fell onto her bed. "I am so in love."

"Oh gosh, who are you and what did you do with my best friend?" She laughed and laid next to me.


	6. Chapter 6

Of course I also told Gibby about our makeout session, and "don't tell anyone, it's a secret" didn't stop him from letting a few people know. Carly told some people too, along with Freddie telling the entire nerd brigade of the school. People were looking at me funny everywhere I went.

"Heard you got it on with Benson, Sam."

I turned around to see one of the few people I hated. She was skinny, short, had long, perfectly straight hair that she'd shown off to me for years, constantly telling me to "go buy a flat iron, you poodle-headed freak". She always had a way of doing it in front of teachers, so killing her wasn't an option. But today, she'd messed up. There was no one else in the hall but us.

"Is there a problem with that?" I might as well start defending Freddie now, since we would hopefully be becoming a couple soon enough.

"Well, you see, he's been talking to one of my friends. And I don't appreciate you taking him away from her. You're going to be a homewrecker, just like your mom." She started to walk away, then turned back to me to add, "whore."

I didn't know what friend of hers Freddie was "talking" to, but I'd kill that girl another day. At that moment, I ran toward her, grabbed her stupid straight hair, yanked a chunk out, and punched her in the face. Repeatedly. This went on until finally a teacher saw, and pulled me off of her. She sat up, her face covered in blood, and I knew she'd never have the guts to call me a whore again. Maybe not even a properly functioning mouth - she spit out a couple teeth too.

"Sam," Principal Franklin started, "I knew you were a troublemaker, but you've never beaten the shit out of anyone, especially not like this!"

I sat quietly in his office, knowing suspension was coming up.

"Do you know how close her parents are to the superintendent? They could have you expelled, they have so much power."

I shrugged. "She called my mom a homewrecker and then called me a whore."

"Why on earth would she say that about you? We all know you keep your rep clean." He shook his head, "Is it all this talk I hear about you sleeping with Freddie Benson?"

"Sleeping?" I laughed, "I am not sleeping with him."

"Look, do whatever you want, but keep it personal. You can't have sex with someone you're not dating, let it go around the school, and not expect someone to call you a whore." He sighed, "I'm going to have to suspend you for a week, at least. She has to go into the hospital."

"So are you saying I am a whore?" I stood up and slammed my hands on his desk.

"No, Sam, I'm not. I know you and him are more than that." He winked at me, "Good job today."

"Good job?"

"Four teeth. Thats your personal best."

I smiled at him before leaving his office. It was strange to think I was actually close with my principal, but after all the time I spent in his office, we became friends. I told him about my experiences, my life, everything. We knew each other. My previous personal best was three teeth after smacking a cop in the face with a box of donuts on his dashboard, then kicking him in the mouth before escaping the car.

I figured I'd use the suspension time to relax from all the studying and homework. But that wasn't gonna stop me from confronting Freddie. We met at Carly's after school that week.

"So." I sat next to him on the couch and peered over at what he was doing on his laptop, "I beat the shit out of that girl Andrea."

"I heard." He laughed. "You've been getting shit about us kissing, too?"

"She told me you've been talking- and I mean 'talking' to another girl." It kind of hurt, finally thinking about it.

"Wha?" He looked over at me, "Who?"

"Freddie, just tell me right now if you are or not, I promise I won't kill her, only put her in a coma." I felt my body get cold, completely nervous he was going to say yes.

"Sam, I'm not 'talking' to anyone else." He used airquotes when he said talking, and it made me smile at how cute he was. "You're the only girl I want, and it's been that way for a while."

I didn't understand why he didn't just ask me to be his girlfriend in that moment. Did people not do that anymore? Was that middle school? Were we just friends with benefits? There wasn't much benefit unless he was into lots of drooly tongue wrestling.

I didn't say anything. But when I peeked back at his screen, he was talking to her on Facebook. Her. Andrea. As cheesy as it sounds, my heart broke, I got up, went into Carly's room, locked the door and cried. A lot.

Carly wasn't home, and I guess Freddie left when he realized I wasn't going to go back to the couch with him. I heard Spencer calling my name through the house, "Sam are you still here?"

I got myself together, opened the door and shouted, "Yes!"

"What have you been doing up here all this time?" He asked, staring at me as I blinked back more tears. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'll leave now." I headed down the stairs.

"No, Sam, it's cool if you stay until Carly gets home. We're having ribs for dinner," he followed me downstairs and grabbed my shoulder, "You can talk to me, you know. I'm here for you if anything's up."

"I'm okay, really." I smiled at him. It always made me feel better knowing that Spencer was kind of like a brother to me, too. He was always, always, always there for me, when I needed money, food, a place to stay, or just someone to hang out with.

"Whatever you say," he reached for a pack of clay he had sitting on the kitchen counter, "wanna model for me?"

"Are you going to sculpt another fish?" I crossed my arms, "or are you actually going to sculpt me?"

"I'll sculpt you." He smiled cheesily, so I sat down in a chair and posed.

When Carly finally got home, Spencer was halfway done with his sculpture of me. She tossed her jacket on the couch, then we all gathered around the table to eat. I focused on eating more than anything, trying to take my mind off of Freddie. But I couldn't help trying to figure out how to tell Carly what had happened.

"So, I heard you got suspended," she mumbled.

"Yeah." I took a bite of my ribs, then a sip of my soda. "No big deal."

"I thought you were trying to be more responsible and stuff." She sighed, "getting suspended isn't very responsible."

"No, I just want my grades to go up." I shrugged, "It's all good."

"Whatever you say. How'd Freddie feel about it?" She stood up, got a lemon, cut it, and squeezed some in her water.

"He didn't care. He doesn't care about me, you know?" I put my ribs down, wiped my hands and mouth, then stood. "I think I'm gonna get going."

"What? Why? You didn't even finish your dinner!" Spencer pointed at my plate."What do you mean Freddie doesn't care about you? Is that why you were crying in Carly's room for like hours?"

"You were _crying_?" Carly took a step towards me.

"He likes Andrea, alright? That's why I punched her. She told me that I was stealing him from one of her friends, but she meant her. He likes her, I guess, not me." I shook my head, "Carly, I should have never started any of this. I should have just kept it my little secret. I would have never lost touch with you, and I wouldn't be wasting my time with school, or beating girls up, or crying so much. And I wouldn't feel retarded around Freddie."

"Sam-" Spencer stood up and tried to hug me but I ran away from him. I left their apartment, hesistated in front of Freddie's door, then left Bushwell Plaza. I fell asleep when I got home.

I slept. And slept. And slept.

I had nowhere to go, and nothing to do. I stayed in bed, eating Fat Cakes, Pringles, and leftover spaghetti from the week before. I had entire episodes of Girly Cow memorized, my hair was a greasy mess and my skin was broken out.

I hadn't talked to Freddie since, but Carly kept texting me asking me to go to her place. I kept saying no, and continued to rot in my bed.

It wasn't so much that I was depressed. I didn't care. Andrea could have him. I hadn't had Freddie for years, I wasn't even losing him to her. He was never mine.

I was nearly falling asleep when someone began to bang on my front door, loudly, to the point I thought it was the police. I ran to it and opened it to see Freddie, equally as disgusting looking. He walked into my house, slammed the door behind him, and stared at me.

"Sam, I miss you. Why haven't you been talking to me? What the hell happened?" He ran his fingers through his hair, "You've been ignoring me, haven't you? We kissed, and I thought we would be more, but you didn't make another move, and you just disappeared."

"Freddie-"

"I told you I wasn't talking to anyone else. Sure, Andrea _tried_ to hit on me, but I told her I wasn't interested plenty of times. Sam, I want you. I'm sick of playing this stupid game with you." He grabbed my shoulders, "I love you, Sam, now tell me that you love me too."

I'd never really thought about love before. Sure, there was no doubt in my mind that I loved him back, but it was just weird to actually say it out loud. I wanted to, I really did, but I was staring at him, taking in the little details of his face that I'd never noticed before. The blackheads on his nose and the slightest sign of scruff, each and every eyelash and which hairs were out of place in his eyebrows, even the little crack in his lip from biting it so much.

"Tell me that you love me too," he repeated, "please."

I smiled at him. I couldn't help but tease him. It was just my nature. I was happy. Ever single bad thought that had just went through my mind about never having him, and him wanting Andrea disappeared. He was here, he was mine, and he was holding onto my shoulders for dear life.

"And if I don't?" I put my hand on his cheek.

"But you _do_." He pressed his lips against mine, then pulled back and looked into my eyes.

"So what if I do?" I spun around, grabbing a cookie from the Chips Ahoy pack on the table, "You've been taking a pretty long time to ask me to be your girlfriend."

"Well, then, Sam, will you be my girlfriend?"

"Only if you help me get all my grades up to A's."

I cleaned myself up, grabbed my backpack, and headed over to Freddie's. He was sitting on his bed on his laptop, wearing pajamas, and eating applesauce.

"Hey," I said, sitting next to him, "your mom sprayed some freaky stuff on my feet."

"It's just disinfectant. Don't worry about it." He kissed my cheek, "Ready to study?"

"Yup." I pulled out my history book.

"No, no. We're starting with math today. Here, solve this equation."

I looked down at the notebook paper he handed to me, and I giggled to myself. I'd seen it online plenty of times. 9x-7i 3(3x-7u).

"I less than three you, too."


End file.
